Get The Big Money Boys' Attention
OK, I have to admit that I have been worked up about this for a while. Here is a suggestion: If every one of us wrote something like this to all the credit card companies and banks we do business with (with copies to your Congress Person, The Prez and the local cops), it might shape them up a bit.
LETTER TO BANKS, CREDIT CARD AND CREDIT DATA COMPANIES
This is to put you on notice that it is your responsibility to prevent “identity theft.”
If you decide to give some criminal a credit card in my name that means you didn’t check to see if you were giving credit to the right person. Or perhaps you actually sent a credit card with my name on it to the wrong person. I had nothing to do with either of these stupid decisions, and I am not in any way responsible for them.
If you allow someone other than me to tap into my bank account, it means you didn’t fulfill your business responsibility of monitoring withdrawals. It’s my money in your trust, and any theft from my account is your responsibility, not mine.
If your security is lax and my personal information gets in the hands of criminals, and this causes me any loss whatsoever or causes me to spend hundreds of hours repairing my credit rating, you are at fault.
Let me be clear. If I lose money, time or credit rating because of your security failures, I will hold you responsible for every dollar and every hour it costs me. In our system that means I will sue you for losses and punitive damages. The idea that somehow it is the victim’s fault when you screw up is absurd, and I am confident that any jury of my peers will fully agree with this obvious conclusion, “fine print” in your agreements notwithstanding.
LETTER TO BANKS, CREDIT CARD AND CREDIT DATA COMPANIES
This is to put you on notice that it is your responsibility to prevent “identity theft.”
If you decide to give some criminal a credit card in my name that means you didn’t check to see if you were giving credit to the right person. Or perhaps you actually sent a credit card with my name on it to the wrong person. I had nothing to do with either of these stupid decisions, and I am not in any way responsible for them.
If you allow someone other than me to tap into my bank account, it means you didn’t fulfill your business responsibility of monitoring withdrawals. It’s my money in your trust, and any theft from my account is your responsibility, not mine.
If your security is lax and my personal information gets in the hands of criminals, and this causes me any loss whatsoever or causes me to spend hundreds of hours repairing my credit rating, you are at fault.
Let me be clear. If I lose money, time or credit rating because of your security failures, I will hold you responsible for every dollar and every hour it costs me. In our system that means I will sue you for losses and punitive damages. The idea that somehow it is the victim’s fault when you screw up is absurd, and I am confident that any jury of my peers will fully agree with this obvious conclusion, “fine print” in your agreements notwithstanding.
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